Mohamed Salah and Liverpool's Internal Struggles
Mohamed Salah was supposed to be gone. The farewell lap, the final photos, the polite statements about “new chapters” – all of it felt inevitable as Liverpool’s title defence collapsed around him.
Now, there’s a twist.
According to a report in The Athletic, Salah is open to ripping up the script and staying at Anfield. But only on his terms. And those terms cut right through the heart of Liverpool’s current regime.
A Miserable Defence of a Crown
The 2025/26 season has been brutal for Liverpool. A year on from lifting their 20th league title, they have stumbled through a campaign that has stripped away the aura built over the previous era.
Results have been poor. Performances worse. The swagger has gone.
Salah, once the relentless spearhead of Liverpool’s attack, has seen his form “fall off a cliff” compared to last season. He’s not alone – much of the squad has regressed – but when the team’s standard-bearer dips, the entire structure shakes.
On the touchline, Arne Slot has found himself under the spotlight. His tactics have been labelled uninspiring, his results underwhelming. The idea of a smooth transition into a new footballing identity has given way to a side that looks unsure of itself, caught between what it was and what it is supposed to become.
The tension between star player and head coach has only added fuel.
Salah vs Slot: Fault Lines Exposed
Salah and Slot have clashed more than once this season. The flashpoints have been obvious: the forward’s slide down the pecking order, the public frustration, the growing sense that this relationship was broken beyond repair.
Eventually, Liverpool moved towards a clean break. With a year left on his contract, the consensus – from player, club and coach – was that a free-transfer exit in the summer made the most sense.
Then came the weekend.
After Friday’s defeat to Aston Villa, Salah went public. He criticised Slot’s playing style and called for a return to the “heavy metal attacking football” that once defined Liverpool at their peak. It wasn’t subtle. It was a direct challenge to the current direction of the club.
At that point, his departure felt even more certain.
Yet The Athletic’s report paints a different, more complicated picture. It claims that people close to Salah in Egypt have been quietly suggesting he has not completely abandoned the idea of staying at Liverpool, despite recent announcements about his exit.
There is, however, a catch. A huge one.
The Conditions of a U-turn
For Salah to consider staying, the report states, he would want a “regime change” at Liverpool.
That starts with Slot.
The Athletic outlines that Salah’s continued presence at Anfield would likely require the departure of the head coach and also the exit of the directors who back him – figures whose own contracts are due to expire in a year.
In other words, Salah’s future and Slot’s future have become mutually exclusive scenarios in the eyes of those around him. One stays, or the other does.
It is a stark framing of the internal fault lines at Liverpool: the club caught between its most iconic modern goalscorer and the man tasked with leading the next phase.
FSG Stand Firm – For Now
If Salah’s camp hoped that public pressure and a toxic season would push Fenway Sports Group towards a change of heart on Slot, the early signals suggest otherwise.
On Monday, TEAMtalk reported that FSG were rethinking Slot’s position, with Salah’s outburst after the Villa defeat said to have “triggered” internal discussions and led to four potential replacements being considered.
Yet transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano has pushed back against the idea that Liverpool are already moving on from their head coach.
“They want to support Arne Slot, believe in Arne Slot,” Romano said on his YouTube channel, underlining the owners’ current stance.
He acknowledged the scale of the crisis. Twenty defeats. Poor football. A season described as “too negative” by those inside the club. No one is pretending this has been anything other than a mess.
But the key point remains: according to Romano, up to this weekend Liverpool had not made contact with any alternative coach. Not Xabi Alonso. Not anyone.
“The reality is that the owners and the management are deciding,” he said, stressing that Liverpool “didn’t call Xabi Alonso because they believe in Arne Slot.”
So, on one side, a disillusioned superstar willing to reconsider his future if the club tears up its current blueprint. On the other, owners publicly backing a coach in the middle of a storm, insisting he is still their man.
A Club at a Crossroads
Salah’s stance, as reported, throws Liverpool’s next move into sharp relief.
Keep Slot, keep the current hierarchy, and they may have to watch one of the greatest players in the club’s history walk away for nothing. Back Salah’s conditions, and Liverpool would effectively admit that their chosen post-title project has failed inside a year.
This is no longer just about tactics or a bad run of form. It is about who gets to define Liverpool’s future.
The club once built its modern identity on the fusion of a clear vision from the boardroom, a charismatic coach, and a ruthless, world-class forward line led by Salah. Now, those elements are pulling in different directions.
FSG must decide which thread to cut – and quickly.
